Jamie Oliver with the pupils and public figures who are going to try their hand at teaching in Jamie's Dream School. Photograph: Channel 4

Jamie Oliver might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's hard to fault his enthusiasm. His efforts to revolutionise school dinners, coax the British into cooking healthy food and get young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into employment through his Fifteen restaurants have turned the TV chef into something of a national treasure. His latest mission is to persuade 20 teenagers who left school without GCSEs to give education a second chance.

Jamie's Dream School brings together some of Britain's most accomplished people, including Andrew Motion and the athlete Daley Thompson. The brief? To deliver inspiring, engaging lessons to young people who have given up on education.

Episode 1, featuring lessons from the actor Simon Callow, scientist Robert Winston, yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, artist Rolf Harris and the historian David Starkey (who called one of the students fat) was aired last week. Here, teachers give their verdict:

I was expecting Jamie's Dream School to take another pop at the profession, but it demonstrated why good teachers are such talented, good-humoured and skilled people. Jamie's teachers may have fantastic subject knowledge, but they haven't been trained and some of them would have certainly benefited from this before being exposed to a class of their own.

Wayne Redmond, maths teacher, Babington Community college, Leicester. He is also involved in Train to Teach, a government initiative to recruit more teachers

It was good to see passionate, accomplished people trying to inspire those without passion, but this was a showpiece. It wasn't anything like a school – it was just big fun party time, like Celebrity Big Brother or The X Factor.

I suspect the way the programme was edited made the students' behaviour seem worse than it was. While most teachers would recognise that kind of attitude, it's certainly not representative of what goes on in schools every day.

Jo Shuter is headteacher of Quintin Kynaston school in London

I love Jamie Oliver, but this programme made me really angry. What makes him think he has the right to play with children's lives like this? These young people may have been failed by the system, but it felt like the public were voyeurs watching a load of chimpanzees, waiting for them to misbehave. If Jamie wants to understand inspirational teaching, there are many headteachers who could help. If he wants to use his wealth to help with charitable causes, there are much better ways of doing it. I'm trying to set up a hostel for the homeless at my school. I'd welcome a couple of hundred thousand for that.

Sean Bradley, law teacher, Gloucester college

It was good to see the celebrities struggling. Teaching can be a tough job and it's good for the public to see that. My only disappointment was that Jamie didn't get involved with any of the teaching. He had the best rapport with the kids and I'm sure he would have made a really good job of it.

I was irritated by the programme because it was yet another example of young people being stereotyped negatively. There are many enthusiastic students in schools who want to do well, but this is never celebrated in the media.

The assumption was: bring a load of middle-class white males, middle-aged and beyond, and expect young people to listen to them, just because of who they are. It doesn't work like that; as a teacher, you have to earn children's respect.

People have praised Jamie for his rapport with the kids, but it's much easier to do that if you can slouch around in jeans and talk mockney to them.

Katharine Birbalsingh is a teacher and author of To Miss With Love, an account of life as a teacher in an inner-city school

The very first episode of Jamie's Dream School unwittingly exposed precisely what is wrong with our education system. David Starkey made a grave mistake at the start: he tried to be cool and hip. No doubt remembering how teachers behaved in his day, he called one of his pupils fat. The pupil hit back with venom, and was then lost for the rest of the lesson, and possibly forever.

Jamie and John D'Abbro, the headteacher, talked of possible disciplinary action and how to get Starkey to realise that his behaviour was unacceptable. But what about the pupil's reaction?

Starkey was wrong, there is no doubt. But for it not to occur to anyone that these pupils needed a conversation on how one should always show one's teacher respect, that one should always try to turn the other cheek … it is indicative of what is wrong with modern Britain.

The programme made some important points about teaching; it's not just about knowing your subject. You have to be able to engage children, and get them excited about learning. Rolf Harris was the most successful at this. He was the only celebrity "teacher" I heard calling a student by their name.

Starkey's attitude was shocking. There is never any excuse for ridicule.

Jane Waters, English teacher, Gravesend Grammar school

At the very least, the programme provides insight into how difficult it is to maintain a calm environment when faced with mutiny. My 12-year-old son said he had never seen such behaviour from fellow pupils, nor had he seen such bad teaching.

David Weston, maths and physics teacher, Watford Grammar school for boys

The programme clearly showed what heroes teachers are, day in, day out. When David Starkey's lesson didn't go well he put the blame completely on the students. As a real teacher, you can't do that. You have to take responsibility for your own actions. You can't just give up on your students, even when they are really testing.

James Williams, lecturer in science education, University of Sussex

Michael Gove wants to get teacher training back into schools and for all teachers to have at least 2:2 degrees, but Jamie's Dream School showed exactly why he is wrong. Seeing the celebrities trying their hand at teaching highlighted the fact that good subject knowledge alone is not enough. Of the four celebrity teachers featured in episode 1, I'd offer Rolf Harris and Robert Winston a place on a teacher training course. Winston had put a lot of thought into how he might engage the students, and Harris was able to analyse what went wrong and what he could have done better. I'd need to see more of Callow in action, but Starkey, I'm afraid, would not be offered a place.